This is a thread dedicated to my little project of making a tank a viable huntsman weapon. I mainly intend this thread to be an openly accessible storage space, an attempt to do this entirely above board and to allay any fears that I'm trying to 'break the game' insofar that is even possible in a roleplay.
Mod rulings on the whole thing, proposals for balance, what is and is not allowed, good ideas by random people, etcetera, I will all save it here.
Feel free to pitch in if you want.
Ratio resides in a hangar on school grounds. It is an immobile setpiece.
Marcus' pride and joy, what he considers to be his true personal weapon rather than what he's currently using in the RP. He is quite proud of the fact his personal creation is by far the heaviest hunts(wo)man weapon on public record by several orders of magnitude. Coming in at a hefty sixty-six tons all told, Ultima Ratio Regum is a loud angry mountain of armour, guns and bloodlust. Marcus will happily dole out what he calls 'the goomba treatment' when given the chance.
That said, Ratio cannot and should not fight in a true prolonged melee, period. It lacks a close quarters weapon outside of it's extreme weight, the turret cannot traverse fast enough to keep up with even slow hunters, and Marcus literally cannot tell when someone is on top of him due to the way the sensor blocks are arranged.
Instead, Marcus/Ratio is a duo that is for designed to be for all intents and purposes the last word when it comes to ranged combat. Ratio is outfitted with a wide variety of devastating firearms and can bring them to bear with pin point accuracy over extreme ranges. Marcus then brings the machine to the next level, and not just because his semblance synchronises so extremely well with the weapon. His creativity to come up with new ways to push the envelope, as well as his enthusiastic willingness to go beyond what most would consider safe or even sane are just as important.
Ratio's main armament are two 88mm rail-cannons that fire a wide variety of specialised shells. As a 'side arm' equivalent it carries around a gatling gun nestled between the two cannons. This gun, while overshadowed by the main battery monsters, is quite fearsome in it's own right. Most machineguns go like this, whereas by contrast the affectionately nicknamed 'Bert' goes like this.
Then there are the single shot grenade launchers dotted around the hull that fire smoke grenades and even napalm if Marcus thinks people are getting too touchy feely.
On top of this, just like every other weapon on Remnant, the Ratio is also a gun. In the stationary artillery piece form, it fires plasma blasts in an arcing shot. This weapon is equally effective at melting mobs as it is at annihilating armour at truly ridiculous ranges. As a side note, as far as Marcus is concerned Ratio is incomplete until this weapon is operational.
As for defense, Ratio is richly slathered with thick slabs of armour. The original design called for all-round protection, redundancies in all major systems and full NBC protection with barely any weakspots. (Rating 5)
In reality Ratio posesses numerous weaknesses such as sensor blocks, air intakes, cooling fans etcetera due to the simple fact all of these defences cost a lot of resources. Likewise while the design was originally amphibious and airtight, Marcus was forced to drop these features simply to get Ratio rolling. (Rating 4 and lower)
Possible upgrades to the base chassis: ERA tiles, a missile rack, laser designator powerful enough to blind a person, letting the search radar be turned into an improvised MASER array (AKA the pain beam).
Or in other words, the above is just lore. This section covers ideas for actual mechanical effects, special rules, etcetera.
My ideas for Ratio as per the current rating system: Counts as both weapon and armour at the same time. Marcus isn't going to take Ratio on missions until it's been upgraded to at least rating 3 for both. I'm not too sure if it's possible to have both magical armour and normal armour at the same time, but if it is possible you can count on this being stacked on there too. Yes, I am aware that this means I need to invest at the bare minimum 50,000 Lien and 30,000 exp before this beast takes to the field, or 75,000 Lien and 45,000 exp if magical armour can get stacked on too. It's a tank, they are never cheap.
The eagle eyed may have noticed, there's no dust on there. I do not plan to ever add dust attacks to Marcus repertoire. That said, if need be I am open to add fuel costs on top of the other requirements, like a single charge of fire dust per thread Ratio runs in. See also the proposed resource hog special rule.
PROPOSALS for possible tradeoffs. This does not mean all of them will have to apply, if any apply at all, just stuff that I thought could help balance Ultima Ratio Regum mechanically.
Cons:
- Oversized ammunition: Ratio carries only 48 shells total for the 88mm cannons, even less (12?) for artillery mode. Ammunition capacity can be balanced up or down as needed.
- Resource hog: Requires one charge of fire dust per thread as fuel. Cost increases to one lightning dust when the hull is upgraded to Rating 4+ Armour. An amount of Lien can be added for ammunition resupply and repair costs.
- Complex: Ratio is affected by all status effects, even the scrambled status effect. This is due to the complex machinery that can be scrambled, while the driver is vulnerable to poison as normal.
- Lumbering behemoth: Ratio has some obvious problems with mobility in extremely rough terrain, it cannot sneak and cannot enter narrow caves and the like. Cannot ambush anyone in close range.
- Near sighted: Due to the way the sensors, cameras and periscopes are aligned, Ratio has difficulty looking at things close by. Cannot dodge melee attacks. Attacks that fail to do damage will not break the attacker's stealth as Marcus simply fails to notice them bounce harmlessly off the armour.
Pros:
+ RAMpage: At 66 tons and with a 120 kph top speed, Ratio will win most headbutting matches. On top of that anything small enough to get caught up in the treads will get shredded in short order.
+ Bustle rack: Ratio has a cargo capacity of 'yes' and brings enough supplies to the table to let hunters last for anywhere up to three months longer in the field without ressuply, run a small field hospital and repair a bridge. At the same time.
+ Lumbering behemoth: Thick all-round armour, rugged redundancies and sheer size allow Ratio to shrug off hits that would outright incapacitate other hunters. Takes status affects as if the caster was at one affinity less than actual (eg affinity 1 status effects get outright ignored, affinity 2 status effects only hit as affinity 1, etc).
+ Almost enough gun: Ratio doesn't have just one weapon but a whole host to choose from. 88mm railguns, a gatling gun, grenade launchers, the treads, you name it.
+ Sniper tank: Ratio's unique combination of heavy weapons, stable firing platform and large sensor array give it a mayor edge in ranged fights. In tank mode it can reach out and touch someone over 3 kilometres away and artillery mode has 10 times that range.
Ammunition! A lot of people tend to overlook that guns can fire more than just lead, especially when the calibre becomes large enough that creative minds can start to squeeze in all sorts of truly interesting murder devices inside the projectiles. While not having a mechanical effect bar possibly the incendiary, it is important to note that Marcus has way more than just bog standard big heavy bullets (though rest assured he has those too).
88mm specials:
High Explosive Anti Tank (HEAT): A general purpose round that explodes in a specific way to pierce through armour. Functions acceptably as a general purpose round, though it specialises in knocking out heavily armoured targets at long range.
Canister: A giant shotgun shell. Excellent for crowds of beowulfs and the like that get too close for comfort.
High Explosive Incendiary (HEI): Special explosive shell that spreads around napalm on impact. Used for area denial work and for smoking out Grimm hiding in little nooks and crannies.
Armour Piercing (AP): Bog standard big heavy bullet. At short to middle ranges it pierces armour better than HEAT, and unlike HEAT it can batter through walls, trees, houses, reinforced concrete and other such 'soft' cover to reach it's target.
High Explosive (HE): Tiny little organ parts for everyone! A big blob of explosives with a variable or impact fuse. Not good versus anything with armour. Used for crowd control at much safer ranges than the 'insert gun in face' canister shells.
Mod rulings on the whole thing, proposals for balance, what is and is not allowed, good ideas by random people, etcetera, I will all save it here.
Feel free to pitch in if you want.
CURRENT STATUS: NOT ACTIVE
Ratio resides in a hangar on school grounds. It is an immobile setpiece.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
- Ultima Ratio Regum, the Final Argument of Kings:
Marcus' pride and joy, what he considers to be his true personal weapon rather than what he's currently using in the RP. He is quite proud of the fact his personal creation is by far the heaviest hunts(wo)man weapon on public record by several orders of magnitude. Coming in at a hefty sixty-six tons all told, Ultima Ratio Regum is a loud angry mountain of armour, guns and bloodlust. Marcus will happily dole out what he calls 'the goomba treatment' when given the chance.
That said, Ratio cannot and should not fight in a true prolonged melee, period. It lacks a close quarters weapon outside of it's extreme weight, the turret cannot traverse fast enough to keep up with even slow hunters, and Marcus literally cannot tell when someone is on top of him due to the way the sensor blocks are arranged.
Instead, Marcus/Ratio is a duo that is for designed to be for all intents and purposes the last word when it comes to ranged combat. Ratio is outfitted with a wide variety of devastating firearms and can bring them to bear with pin point accuracy over extreme ranges. Marcus then brings the machine to the next level, and not just because his semblance synchronises so extremely well with the weapon. His creativity to come up with new ways to push the envelope, as well as his enthusiastic willingness to go beyond what most would consider safe or even sane are just as important.
Ratio's main armament are two 88mm rail-cannons that fire a wide variety of specialised shells. As a 'side arm' equivalent it carries around a gatling gun nestled between the two cannons. This gun, while overshadowed by the main battery monsters, is quite fearsome in it's own right. Most machineguns go like this, whereas by contrast the affectionately nicknamed 'Bert' goes like this.
Then there are the single shot grenade launchers dotted around the hull that fire smoke grenades and even napalm if Marcus thinks people are getting too touchy feely.
On top of this, just like every other weapon on Remnant, the Ratio is also a gun. In the stationary artillery piece form, it fires plasma blasts in an arcing shot. This weapon is equally effective at melting mobs as it is at annihilating armour at truly ridiculous ranges. As a side note, as far as Marcus is concerned Ratio is incomplete until this weapon is operational.
As for defense, Ratio is richly slathered with thick slabs of armour. The original design called for all-round protection, redundancies in all major systems and full NBC protection with barely any weakspots. (Rating 5)
In reality Ratio posesses numerous weaknesses such as sensor blocks, air intakes, cooling fans etcetera due to the simple fact all of these defences cost a lot of resources. Likewise while the design was originally amphibious and airtight, Marcus was forced to drop these features simply to get Ratio rolling. (Rating 4 and lower)
Possible upgrades to the base chassis: ERA tiles, a missile rack, laser designator powerful enough to blind a person, letting the search radar be turned into an improvised MASER array (AKA the pain beam).
PROPOSALS AND IDEAS
Or in other words, the above is just lore. This section covers ideas for actual mechanical effects, special rules, etcetera.
My ideas for Ratio as per the current rating system: Counts as both weapon and armour at the same time. Marcus isn't going to take Ratio on missions until it's been upgraded to at least rating 3 for both. I'm not too sure if it's possible to have both magical armour and normal armour at the same time, but if it is possible you can count on this being stacked on there too. Yes, I am aware that this means I need to invest at the bare minimum 50,000 Lien and 30,000 exp before this beast takes to the field, or 75,000 Lien and 45,000 exp if magical armour can get stacked on too. It's a tank, they are never cheap.
The eagle eyed may have noticed, there's no dust on there. I do not plan to ever add dust attacks to Marcus repertoire. That said, if need be I am open to add fuel costs on top of the other requirements, like a single charge of fire dust per thread Ratio runs in. See also the proposed resource hog special rule.
PROPOSALS for possible tradeoffs. This does not mean all of them will have to apply, if any apply at all, just stuff that I thought could help balance Ultima Ratio Regum mechanically.
Cons:
- Oversized ammunition: Ratio carries only 48 shells total for the 88mm cannons, even less (12?) for artillery mode. Ammunition capacity can be balanced up or down as needed.
- Resource hog: Requires one charge of fire dust per thread as fuel. Cost increases to one lightning dust when the hull is upgraded to Rating 4+ Armour. An amount of Lien can be added for ammunition resupply and repair costs.
- Complex: Ratio is affected by all status effects, even the scrambled status effect. This is due to the complex machinery that can be scrambled, while the driver is vulnerable to poison as normal.
- Lumbering behemoth: Ratio has some obvious problems with mobility in extremely rough terrain, it cannot sneak and cannot enter narrow caves and the like. Cannot ambush anyone in close range.
- Near sighted: Due to the way the sensors, cameras and periscopes are aligned, Ratio has difficulty looking at things close by. Cannot dodge melee attacks. Attacks that fail to do damage will not break the attacker's stealth as Marcus simply fails to notice them bounce harmlessly off the armour.
Pros:
+ RAMpage: At 66 tons and with a 120 kph top speed, Ratio will win most headbutting matches. On top of that anything small enough to get caught up in the treads will get shredded in short order.
+ Bustle rack: Ratio has a cargo capacity of 'yes' and brings enough supplies to the table to let hunters last for anywhere up to three months longer in the field without ressuply, run a small field hospital and repair a bridge. At the same time.
+ Lumbering behemoth: Thick all-round armour, rugged redundancies and sheer size allow Ratio to shrug off hits that would outright incapacitate other hunters. Takes status affects as if the caster was at one affinity less than actual (eg affinity 1 status effects get outright ignored, affinity 2 status effects only hit as affinity 1, etc).
+ Almost enough gun: Ratio doesn't have just one weapon but a whole host to choose from. 88mm railguns, a gatling gun, grenade launchers, the treads, you name it.
+ Sniper tank: Ratio's unique combination of heavy weapons, stable firing platform and large sensor array give it a mayor edge in ranged fights. In tank mode it can reach out and touch someone over 3 kilometres away and artillery mode has 10 times that range.
Ammunition! A lot of people tend to overlook that guns can fire more than just lead, especially when the calibre becomes large enough that creative minds can start to squeeze in all sorts of truly interesting murder devices inside the projectiles. While not having a mechanical effect bar possibly the incendiary, it is important to note that Marcus has way more than just bog standard big heavy bullets (though rest assured he has those too).
88mm specials:
High Explosive Anti Tank (HEAT): A general purpose round that explodes in a specific way to pierce through armour. Functions acceptably as a general purpose round, though it specialises in knocking out heavily armoured targets at long range.
Canister: A giant shotgun shell. Excellent for crowds of beowulfs and the like that get too close for comfort.
High Explosive Incendiary (HEI): Special explosive shell that spreads around napalm on impact. Used for area denial work and for smoking out Grimm hiding in little nooks and crannies.
Armour Piercing (AP): Bog standard big heavy bullet. At short to middle ranges it pierces armour better than HEAT, and unlike HEAT it can batter through walls, trees, houses, reinforced concrete and other such 'soft' cover to reach it's target.
High Explosive (HE): Tiny little organ parts for everyone! A big blob of explosives with a variable or impact fuse. Not good versus anything with armour. Used for crowd control at much safer ranges than the 'insert gun in face' canister shells.
